Initially, nixing these insane promotions was supposed to
help business.

"There's a fair amount of evidence out there that
there aren't enough customers who want to buy four suits at a
time or want to buy that quantity to get a deal," Men's Wearhouse
CEO Doug Ewert toldBloomberg in September. "Taking
away the unnatural quantity discounts will lead to more healthy
transactions. Instead of a guy buying four suits and then we
don't hear from him for quite a while, we can sell him a suit and
shirts and ties and maybe some shoes."

Jos. A.
Bank

The company also tried to appeal to a younger
consumer.

"It’s this focus on newness that will give us the best shot
at winning a larger share of closet with existing customers and
expanding our reach to new and younger customers," Ewert
said on an earnings call in September.

But it's been increasingly difficult for
the company to shift consumers' perception of the brand; this
attempt to transition from a promotion-heavy retailer to a
destination for young, stylish men has arguably hurt it even
more.

"What we did not know then but do now was just how
toxic some of the promotions were and how deep and far-reaching
the transformation required would be," Ewert said
in a conference call with analysts in
December.

It's still proving difficult, months later.

"While our fourth quarter and full year results were
consistent with our revised guidance, we remain very disappointed
by the weak Jos. A. Bank results," Ewert said in a recent
release. "Our transition away from unsustainable promotions has
proven significantly more difficult and expensive than we
expected. We do, however, remain confident that Jos. A.
Bank offers a longer-term opportunity to profitably grow market
share in the menswear business."

Maybe the company should reach out to its founder George
Zimmer, who was axed from the company in 2013.

"Two and a half years ago the senior management
and board of directors called me in and told me that my furniture
was being put in storage and I was being fired," Zimmer said to
Business Insider's Hayley Peterson in December. "In that
two-and-a-half-year period of time not one of them has called me
— now might be a good time."